Our Lady of the Foam
Her bidding echoes through the North.1
South sets the breeze at Her behest.2
Sun, storm, and cloud, they clarion forth3
Her call to farthest East and West.4
“ My halls are decked, my banquets spread5
For each and all in their degree ;6
My welcome waits the gallant dead,7
The graveless dead of all the sea.”8
They come—they come. With voiceless lips9
She gives them greeting. Side by side10
Sit captains of a thousand ships,11
Grim lords of rebel wind and tide.12
And these are from the Baltic crag,13
And those from isles the corals breed,14
And some from derelicts that lag15
Within the dun Sargasso weed.16
The White North renders some. The main,17
Sun-swathed above the banks of pearl,18
Yields toll of all the valiant slain19
Who dared the fierce Atlantic swirl.20
They pledge Her all. The flagons brim.21
They seek Her face with eyes aglow,22
Then clash the tankards rim to rim,23
And drink “Our Lady,” bending low.24
And She ? Her lips are voiceless yet,25
But oh, Her eyes !— They tell, they tell26
Such secrets as the depths beget,27
For those within the depths who dwell,28
The wealth, the wisdom, of the sea,29
That wondrous harvest those may reap30
In love, in fear, in mystery,31
Who love, who fear the outer deep.32
So sit the lords of countless ships,33
And learn of Her, the ever-wise,34
Our Lady of the voiceless lips—35
The voiceless lips—The speaking eyes.36